Anticipation… Its making me Wait

Every time I say I’m waiting for something, I hear Carly Simon in my head singing “that song;” and I see someone pouring Heinz Ketchup over a hamburger. Yes. Apparently, being a child of the ’70’s means I’m older than dirt…

Well, I have an update to my column, So…Like, I’m in Wait Mode; and I’d like to provide everyone an update. This is going to be a short one, and I’m going to hold myself to that, because if I don’t, I’m really going to go off on a specific vendor, and I really don’t want to torch the relationship I have with them. Up to now, it’s been pretty good.

Apple Watch

I ordered a 42mm Space Gray Aluminum Apple Watch Sport with Black Sport Band 13 minutes into the open order cycle on 2015-04-10. I placed an order for a 38mm Silver Apple Watch Sport with Aluminum Case with Pink Sport Band on 2015-04-12, a full two days after orders opened. The 38mm Pink Sport arrived on 2015-05-11, or the day after Mother’s Day, here in the States. This morning, I was greeted with a wonderful surprise – my 42mm Space Gray Aluminum Apple Watch Sport with Black Sport Band moved from “processing items” to “preparing for shipment” during the night. Charges for the device are pending on my credit card, and I anticipate having the Watch in my hands be week’s end.

Olio Model One

Olio sold out of both versions – black and silver – of all of their Model One’s. the device also seems to be doing very well. According to Olio,

“… we received the results of our latest round of water pressure testing. The Model One withstood the equivalent of 50M (164 feet) of water pressure, which is the high bar for traditional, non-dive watches, and something rarely, if ever seen in consumer electronics like smartphones. More impressively, when the microphone hole is sealed, and we air-pressure test the rest of the watch seals, we remain air-tight past 70M (230 feet), at which point standard watch pressure testing equipment can’t go higher. We’re purchasing specialty dive watch pressure testers to continue testing and optimizing those seals.

“The Model One so far has gone through over 300 distinct tests for everything from drop to impact; altitude to water pressure; extreme cold to sweltering heat; and Coca-Cola to dishwashing soap. To date, no Olio Model One front or rear crystal has broken during use. Not one. It is slated to go through many more tests in real world conditions before it reaches your wrists this summer. We are building our watches to handle whatever adventure you bring their way and we can’t wait to hear where you decide to take them.”

This is impressive. This guy isn’t going to get damaged from wearing it while exercising – be that working out or swimming – and will likely survive the standard snorkel or scuba dive – without getting damaged. However, an updated delivery date hasn’t come out of Olio yet. These are still expected sometime in “the summer of 2015.”

Pebble Time

Yeah, I have NO update at all on this guy. The original estimate for delivery of Pebble Time was “May 2015.” Pebble has just under two weeks left to make that delivery window, and there hasn’t been any kind of indication that the device will ship on time or even any kind of project update from them since 2015-05-09 (or the Friday before Mother’s Day, here in the States).

Update #17, sent out on 2015-05-04 indicated that mass production was scheduled to start that week (so, about two weeks ago, as of this writing). I am assuming everything is still on schedule. Pebble’s done this Kickstarter thing before, so they kinda know what they’re doing.

Henge Docks Horizontal Dock

Yeah… I’m not a happy camper about this one. Not happy at all.

Henge Docks announced the product in 2013. It was originally supposed to ship a year ago, but was pushed back. Henge Docks brought it to CES 2015 in the form of a prototype, and it was a HUGE success there. They opened up purchases of the dock, including its Early Adopter Program in mid-January 2015. They sold out almost instantly. Their scheduled delivery date for the Early Adopter edition, which for an extra charge, got you the dock before everyone else, plus special access to their beta firmwares and exclusive support community, was April 2015, with standard delivery for all other Horizontal Dock orders scheduled for June 2015.

They opened up the exclusive support area with an announcement they sent on 2015-03-06. You logged in, took a couple of surveys and were given the opportunity to submit bugs or suggestions. O 2015-04-10, Henge Docks announced that they were pushing back delivery of the dock due to a change in the power supply. They were upgrading the design to a 150 watt power supply from a 127 watt power supply. Between 2015-04-12 through 2015-04-26, the Henge Docks team were scheduled to travel to China to work with their manufacturing partner on assembly of the dock. Delivery of Early Adopter units had been pushed to EARLY May 2015.

I emailed Henge Docks on 2015-05-14 and received the following from their customer service department,

“At this time, we do not have a set, final ship date for the Early Adopter Horizontal Docks. As soon as we have additional information from our Product Development Team we will notify our Early Adopter Customers

“I understand the lack of information is frustrating, we are anxious to get this product out the door. If you prefer to opt out of the Early Adopter program, we understand.”

My response to them was a somewhat tepid, “thank you no. Don’t opt me out. I paid to get into that program. What I want and need is an updated delivery date for the RETAIL product I purchased.”

The organization hasn’t responded to my reply.

What’s bothering me the most here, is that there’s been no official update on this product since 2015-04-10. The organization has missed two (2) delivery dates. This was a RETAIL purchase. The dock wasn’t purchased via Kickstarter or IndieGo-Go. This was a retail purchase. The organization has taken my money and hasn’t delivered the product as of yet; and they’ve missed not only their initial shipment window, but their recast shipment window.

The Early Adopter program website so far is a ghost town. The docks haven’t been delivered; and its clear to me, given the lack of updates on the program, that there are additional engineering problems related to the 150 watt power supply. The units likely are getting too hot and there isn’t enough room for a bigger fan in the current case; or they ran onto some other engineering issue after respec-ing the bigger power supply. I’m guessing of course.

The big issue here is that Henge Docks took payment for my dock in January. They have my money. I don’t have my purchased product. The least they can do is update everyone that bought an Early Adopter unit on where we are with the whole process.

This is a big deal for me, as I want and need a true docking solution for my MacBook Pro, and have wanted one since purchasing my original MacBook Pro back in 2006. Thunderbolt docks aren’t really the way I wanted to go. I don’t want to plug and chug ANY cables in and out of my notebook computer.

I’ve purchased Henge Docks products in the past, and they’ve been totally awesome. However, I don’t like yanking my MBP in and out of a Vertical Dock. Too much torque and pressure are placed on the ports and on the device , especially when removing it from the dock, in my opinion.

That’s why I want the Horizontal Dock. Its docking mechanism is supposed to be much better on the device. I take my MacBook Pro with me everywhere I go, so it’s in and out of a dock – or would be – quite often. My other MBP’s were, as I had Vertical Docks for all of them.

I’m obviously going to keep an eye on this. If I have any additional information, I’ll post back. However, all I’m REALLY looking for here, outside of delivery of the actual product, is some kind of program update informing me when the product will ship and deliver.